Chris Corker Corporate Fraud Members Training June 2017 www.crawley.gov.uk

Government Welfare Reform Universal Credit Late 2011 DWP announce an options paper on SFIS WAKE UP CALL – Things are changing How best to use our trained skilled investigators HB fraud work moves to DWP August 2015 HB, IS, JSA, INCAP, Tax Credits www.crawley.gov.uk

Fraud in the Council Fraud does not want to be detected Difficult to give a real loss figures Protecting the public purse / FFL publications Moral and legal obligation to protect our limited funds www.crawley.gov.uk

Areas of risk Any area where goods and services are applied for: Housing Fraud Council Tax Council Tax Support Scheme Housing Benefit (Referred to DWP) Business Rates Employee Procurement Anywhere Give false information to obtain goods/services Fail to update the council when circumstances change www.crawley.gov.uk

Housing Fraud Illegal subletting Non occupation False applications to be housed False Right to Buy applications Key selling Rent deposit scheme Succession and assignments Audit commission research estimate outside of London 2% of all Social housing stock is misused Estimated cost to the council is £18,000 per property. Crawley Homes have over 8000 properties. 2% = 160 homes Our priority is to house those in need not fraudsters www.crawley.gov.uk

Council Tax Discounts and exemptions Over 24,000 accounts had a discount at some stage during 13/14 Over £4.5m was awarded in discounts Single person discounts / student discounts Exercise last year resulted in £65,000 saving by just matching against electoral roll information. (This year we estimate £75,000 - £100,000 in savings) www.crawley.gov.uk

Business Rates Collect £120,000,000 Approximately 3100 property's Approximately 2800 accounts Sham companies set up to take the fall Small businesses rate relief Charities www.crawley.gov.uk

Council Tax Support 8,300 receiving CT support. £7.7m paid out If we go over our CT support budget then this is a direct loss to CBC Failure to declare Income Failure to declare capital Failure to declare partner Failure to declare changes in circumstances 2% fraud would mean 166 applicaions would be false losing £154,000 www.crawley.gov.uk

Employee False applications No deterrent will cause larger loss Over £21m paid out in salaries and associated costs Criminals look for easy targets and use information to select what organisations to target. If you knew Crawley BC had a fraud deterrent system in place and another authority didn’t where would you apply ? Crawley is the leading authority in Corporate fraud in West Sussex. (Audit Commission data) www.crawley.gov.uk

Headline Figures DWP figures show a 4% loss in fraud and error. A 2% loss would mean. Housing Fraud – 160 properties CT discounts – 480 wrong accounts £178,000 Housing Benefit - £966,000 CT Support - £154,000 Employee - £ 420,000 Housing 160 properties from 8000, CT discounts from 22K £4.5m, www.crawley.gov.uk

Legal Powers Successive governments have given us powers to investigate fraud. Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Fraud & Enforcement) www.crawley.gov.uk

Profile Team profile significantly increased Cross department work New sources of information and intel. So much data held in authority Training Local press coverage of cases www.crawley.gov.uk

Moving Forward Continue forging links within the Council Fraud awareness Preventing loss is much cheaper than trying to recover it. Don’t look you won’t find Finding fraud is positive action and should not be seen as a negative Support our frontline services www.crawley.gov.uk